Former Glory Days building in Easthampton soon to become Glendale Grill

KEVIN GUTTINGNew England fans watching the Super Bowl at Glory Days in Easthampton cheer the Patriots' first touchdown to start the second quarter of their match against the New York Giants Sunday. They are, clockwise from lower left, Stacie and Tracie Lacasse of Holyoke, Kevin Benson and Sean O'Leary of Easthampton, Kristine Sheldon, Dan Regan and Christie Buehrle of Holyoke and Kim Coffin of Southampton. Purchase photo reprints »

EASTHAMPTON — A local trio has plans to open the Glendale Grill, a bar and restaurant, at the 65-67 Glendale St. site that has been home to Glory Days for the last 19 years.

Glory Days closed Nov. 30, but renovations began this week to transform it into a “warm, comfortable” spot with a menu that is slightly more upscale than most pubs, said Southampton resident Shannon Reichelt, who said she hopes to close on the sale of the property in February and open the bar and restaurant soon after.

Reichelt is a Westhampton native who plans to continue operating her accounting firm, S. Reichelt and Company, when the Glendale Grill opens.

“We want it to be a place where anyone would feel comfortable coming in, whether it’s someone coming from a shift at Tubed Products who wants to get a couple of beers or someone who is wearing a suit,” she said Friday in a phone interview.

Glory Days, which opened in 1994, was a sports bar and grill run by Easthampton natives Michael Malinowski, Brian O’Donnell and Paul Ingraham. It was decorated with sports memoribilia from New England sports teams down to local little league photos, and hosted karaoke, live music and trivia.

Reichelt has never owned a restaurant before, but her two business partners have. They are chefs Rod Cameron and John Symasko who have worked for nearly 30 years at area restaurants including the Yankee Pedlar in Holyoke and the former O’Mara’s in Holyoke and former Burgundy’s in Westfield. They most recently owned the Hazard Grille in Enfield, Conn., which closed in April.

“They started as clients of mine nine years ago and we worked together for years,” Reichelt said. “I wanted to help them find a new place and get re-established” and the former Glory Days building seemed like the right spot.

“It’s kind of a coming home for them,” she said of Symasko and Cameron, who were born and raised in Holyoke.

Reichelt said the chefs have devoted following of patrons who love their cooking. They will create a menu that will not be overly fancy.

“It will be some upscale pub food, but also with more entrees,” she said. “It will be something different for the area.”

The chefs will be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the business, she said, while she can see to the financial side of things. She said she is cut out for the job because she has been working for over 15 years to help her clients improve their businesses’ finances through her accounting firm, which has offices in West Springfield and Greenfield.

The Hazard Grille still owes $3,288 in delinquent taxes to the town of Enfield, according to its tax collector’s office, but Reichelt said Cameron and Symasko are working to get “all caught up.”

“They don’t walk away from their responsibilities,” she said. “That’s why they have so much support from everyone.”

Reichelt will go before the city’s Licensing Board Wednesday at 5 p.m. to seek to transfer the Glory Days liquor license to her corporation, Glendale Grill.

She declined to say how much it will cost to buy the property and the license from Glory Days, but said it is being financed through investors and a loan from Easthampton Savings Bank. The property, including the building that was rebuilt after a fire in 2001, is valued at $576,600, according to the city.

The renovations to update the space are all cosmetic, she said, and she hopes they will be complete by the time the sale and liquor license are finalized, probably in February.

Attempts to contact the owners of Glory Days were unsuccessful. In the last year, the restaurant had reduced its daytime hours.

A post on the Glory Days Facebook page Nov. 29 invited patrons to the bar’s last night Nov. 30 to “help us say goodbye to a great neighborhood bar/restaurant... ‘where everybody knows your name,’” refering to the motto of the fictional bar Cheers from the 1982-1993 television show.

Hope the new place will still have garlic wings!
Those were super and better than any others!!

suesox wrote:

01/13/2014

What are your planned operating hours? Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

tnjjll29 wrote:

01/13/2014

I wish you all the best with opening of Glendal Grill. It will be welcomed by the former patrons of Glory Days and the City of Easthampton. Hopefully it will be opened by St. Patricks Day since my husband and I have been celebrating at Glory Days since they opened in 1994,
Again, welcome.